


familiar face

by senkuishigmi



Category: Dr. STONE (Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dr. STONE Manga Spoilers, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Fix It Fic, Gen, Reunions, i love giving senku feelings, i needed them to have a happy ending okay, post treasure island arc, self indulgence to the extreme
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-26
Updated: 2020-05-26
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:15:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,124
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24385687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/senkuishigmi/pseuds/senkuishigmi
Summary: senku and byakuya reunite in the stone world.
Comments: 16
Kudos: 154





	familiar face

While Yuzuriha was sorting through the broken pieces of statue that Taiju had retrieved from the ocean, she didn't expect to come across any familiar faces. The Perseus crew had all been revived, and she was simply doing a good deed by looking over the older statues for anybody who could be saved. Whether they would actually be revived or not, she didn't know, but she couldn't bring herself to just leave their remains scattered on the beach. Unfortunately, many pieces had been washed away after thousands of years underwater, so there wasn't much she could do, but she had managed to piece together a couple of them and set them upright.

As she continued to shuffle through the pile she wrapped her fingers around an arm which she assumed had been severed from its owner's body, but it didn't budge when she tried to lift it. It had a lot more weight than it should have - almost like it was _attached_ to something.

"Taiju, I think I found one that isn't broken! Help me move them." Taiju was there in an instant. She pointed to the statue that she thought to be in tact, and he hoisted it up as if it weighed nothing. "They're covered in moss," he observed, "You can't even see their face."

"Try to get it off," Yuzuriha said, and simply Taiju nodded before getting to work. Senku would have called them irrational for it, but they both knew that some of these people would never see the light of day again, and these statues were the equivalent of their tomb stones. They were the only evidence they ever existed. Making them recognizable was the least they could do. Assuming that was the end of it, Yuzuriha turned back to her work. A couple minutes later, though, Taiju interrupted her.

"Yuzuriha," he called, voice wavering. Startled by his tone, she turned, only to see him bent over the statue, frozen in place. She didn't have a view of his expression from where she stood, but just enough of his face was visible that she could see a tear roll down his cheek.

"What's the matter?" she asked, rushing to his side, "Is is broken after all? If it is, it's not your fault-"

"Yuzuriha," Taiju repeated, "Look."

She tore her eyes from the boy beside her to examine the statue. The moss was mostly cleared from their face now, enough that she could see their features, and- _Oh_.

She gasped, covering her mouth with her hand. "Is that...?"

"I- I thought he was dead!" Taiju cried.

"How did he...?" Yuzuriha's voice trailed off, and she dropped to her knees.

"I have no idea," Taiju replied, wiping his face with his arm, "We have to tell everyone! We have to tell Senku!" He picked the stone statue up a second time and, with Yuzuriha at his heels, hurried along the beach to where the Perseus was docked.

*

The rest of the crew was hard at work repairing the damage that had been done to the ship. It was absolutely trashed, and certainly not fit for sailing. Senku and Suika were kneeling in front of the torn sail, patching it up with skilled hands (not nearly as skilled as Yuzuriha's, though, not even a millimeter), when they heard Taiju's voice.

"Senku! Senku!"

"What is that oaf yelling about now?" Senku sighed, setting aside his sewing needle as he stood up and stretched. Suika stood as well, running to peer over the side of the ship. "He's carrying a stone statue," she informed Senku.

"Who the hell is it? We've all been depetrified already." Senku joined her at the side of the ship, raising an eyebrow at the sight of his friends running toward them. _What's gotten into them?_ he thought.

"Senku!" Taiju screamed again when he saw his friend, "Senku!"

"I heard you the first time," Senku called back, starting down the ramp that descended from the ship. He reached the bottom at the same time as Taiju.

"Senku!" Taiju screamed, right in his friend's face, causing him to wince. "Stop screaming, you meathead, I'm right here. Why are you two crying? And who the hell is that?"

Without another word, Taiju set the petrified man down on the sand so he was facing Senku. Senku's jaw dropped after taking one look at the stone face, and he took a step back in shock.

"He was one of the old statues I found in the ocean," Taiju explained.

" _How_?"

"We have no idea," Yuzuriha said. Others were beginning to gather on the ship's deck, having heard Taiju's shouting.

"What's going on?" Kohaku asked. Effortlessly, she hopped up onto the side of the ship and swung her legs over before jumping down onto the beach. She, of course, landed on her feet.

"The ramp is here for a reason, Kohaku-chan," Gen said as he descended it himself. They both stood behind Senku, Kohaku looking over his right shoulder, and Gen over his left.

"Who is this guy?" Kohaku asked.

"I don't recognize him," Gen said, "but it seems dear Senku here does."

Senku suddenly startled them both by dropping to the ground. Sitting in the sand in between them, he stared up at the statue with huge eyes. They had never seen him so shocked, and, for once, he seemed to be at a loss for words.

"What's the matter with you?" Kohaku asked, crouching next to him, "Do you know him?"

"I thought he was dead," Senku replied, not taking his eyes off the man's face for a second.

"What?" Kohaku looked up at Gen for answers. He said nothing, but the small smile on his face said that he knew something. Well, he was a mentalist. Leave it to him to read Senku so easily. She looked to Taiju next, who stood there sobbing, not offering an explanation either.

"He was dead," Senku said.

"Will someone please explain what's going on?!"

"This... this is my dad," Senku finally said, his voice cracking on the last word.

"That's impossible, though... right?"

Gen crouched down as well, placing a hand on Senku's shoulder. "Well, if our 'whyman' has been watching this entire time," he started, "He surely noticed that someone had survived the petrification. He probably petrified Byakuya-chan specifically in order to stop him. He was clearly a little late, though."

"Why wouldn't he just petrify all the remaining humans, then?" Kohaku asked.

"Who knows?" Gen shrugged. "To save the Medusa's power, perhaps? Primitive villagers don't pose nearly as much of a threat to him as a well educated modern man, after all."

They turned their attention back to Senku. He was _crying_. Not full on sobbing like Taiju, just a couple of tears, but it was the most vulnerable they had ever seen him.

"Can you believe it, Senku?" Taiju asked through his own tears.

"What are _you_ crying for, you big oaf?" Senku snickered, though his voice trembled. He quickly wiped his tears away with the back of his hand, which was shaking slightly as well. Yuzuriha had disappeared into the crowd aboard the ship, but no one even noticed her absence until she returned holding some folded clothes the style the villagers wore, and a jar of miracle fluid. Taiju helped her prep Byakuya for his revival as Senku collected himself, standing up on shaky legs with help from Gen. Yuzuriha held out the clay jar.

"Would you like to do the honors, Senku?"

He took the revival fluid and took a step forward to stand face to face with Byakuya ( _damn it, even after his growth spurt, the old man was still taller than him_ ). He popped the cap off the jar and took a deep breath before pouring the liquid over his father's head.

Senku stood up straight with his hands on his hips, trying his best to keep his expression neutral, as he waited for the reaction to occur. He was going to be the first one Byakuya saw when he awoke, and he was determined to give him a view of a strong young scientist, not a sniveling little kid with tears in his eyes.

(He couldn't control the rapid pounding of his heart, though, or the way his breath hitched in his throat as the first crack appeared in the stone.)

It happened slowly at first, then all at once. One crack became two, and two became four, and four became ten, until they were everywhere. The first few pieces of the stone shell crumbled away, and then they all did, and Byakuya stumbled a bit, suddenly able to move for the first time in 3,700 years.

"Finally awake, old man? Took you long enough," Senku said, with the smirk that everybody there knew all too well.

Byakuya blinked in confusion. "Sen... ku?" he spoke, voice hoarse from lack of use. The confusion only lasted a moment - the next thing he knew, Senku was pulled into a hug so tight it knocked the breath out of him. His first instinct was to push Byakuya away, and he placed a hand on the man's chest to do so, but froze when he felt the beating of his heart under his palm. _He really is alive._

Tears welled in his eyes again, and his hand clenched into a fist, gripping Byakuya's shirt. He leaned into the hug, resting his forehead on his father's shoulder. "Dad," he mumbled, blinking away the tears that threatened to spill, but a single salty drop still managed to escape. Behind them, the rest of the Perseus crew was chattering excitedly, but for the moment, Senku had forgotten all about their presence. 

"God, I'm so glad you're safe, Senku. I missed you so much," Byakuya said, barely louder than a whisper. That was when Senku realized that he was crying, too. "When I returned from space, and when I turned to stone, you- You were all I thought about. God, I love you so much." 

_I missed you too. I love you too._ He didn't say the words out loud, but he didn't need to.

Byakuya pulled away to get a good look at his son's face, placing a hand on his cheek. "I was so worried about you," he said, "I never stopped thinking about you, Senku, not for one second. I've been waiting for this moment for..."

"3,721 years."

"Has it been that long?!"

"I broke out on April 1, 5738. It's been three and a half years since then. You've missed out on a lot."

"It sure looks like it." Byakuya glanced at the Perseus. His eyes traveled to the cluster of people who stood back respectfully, but continued to watch the scene unfold with excited eyes. He recognized a few of the faces from the old world, mixed in with some he had never seen but had features that looked a bit too familiar. He didn't focus on them for long, though, having only eyes for the young man in front of him in that moment. Senku would surely to tell him everything very soon, anyway. With his thumb, Byakuya wiped the tears away from Senku's face, then traced over the boy's scars with his finger tip. On his left arm he had a jagged scar of his own that started at his knuckles and zig zagged all the way up to his elbow. "You're, what, 18 now? Ah, I can't believe it. My boy's all grown up!"

"Oh, please."

"Are you the one who revived me?"

"I am. With the formula I discovered. Same as these losers," Senku said, gesturing to Taiju and Yuzuriha. Taiju took that as his cue to jump in.

"Byakuya-san!" he shouted tearfully, coming up behind Senku to grab both of them in a hug. "I'm so glad you're okay!"

"Hey, hey!" Senku protested, "Get off me, you big oaf! I'll kill you!"

Taiju jumped back apologetically. Byakuya laughed heartily and greeted both him and Yuzuriha, giving them each a hug before turning back to Senku.

He was tearing up again, and the look in his eyes was so loving it made Senku want to puke. "I knew you could do it, Senku," Byakuya said, caressing his son's face, "I knew that if anyone could beat this, it would be you. I'm so damn proud of you."

He pulled Senku close again, and this time Senku hugged him back, nuzzling his face into his neck. "I thought I would never see you again," he whispered, "I thought you were dead."

"I thought so, too," Byakuya laughed softly, stroking his son's hair.

"I'm really glad you're not."

"Me, too."

"I have so much to tell you."

"I can't wait to hear it."

**Author's Note:**

> okay so i know this scenario probably isn't possible considering how the medusa works but i absolutely need these two to be happy together so i said Fuck Canon and whipped this out at 4am. anyway, thank u so much for reading!! please leave kudos or a comment to let me know u enjoyed it 🥺


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